If not for honeybees and other pollinators, there would be no chocolate. In fact, without bees, we would lose one-third of the foods we eat, including many of our fruits and vegetables. To bee or not to bee is not a question at all - we need bees and all the fresh fruits, veggies and cocoa beans they pollinate. Yes, sometimes they sting, but the ancient Greeks understood their importance and considered the little flying creatures to be mythical nymphs. Here are a few hives where bees are, well, buzzing.

"Melissa" means "bee" in Greek, and this private garden of Mediterranean and native California pollen- and nectar-producing plants attracts honeybees and native bees - and visitors who sign up for monthly tours. The owners and bee-tenders take an eco-friendly holistic approach to providing attractive flowering plants for bees. (Call for address.) (707) 433-2114, www.themelissagarden.com.

3. Sunday Honey, Willow Glen in San Jose

Beekeeping classes range from beginning and advanced beekeeping to hive building with "bee installation." Another class covers attracting native bees and solitary pollinators to an urban garden without all the rigmarole of dealing with honeybees. Its participants build a "bee house" - or, really, "bee condos" - out of native woods. (Call for address.) (831) 818-4109, sundayhoneybees.com.

4. Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies, Sacramento

You'll find bees, queens, helmets, veils, gloves, hives and frames, smokers, wax, books, honey strainers and pretty much any other beekeeping product you'll need. Or skip all the work and buy honey - 11 varieties, including eucalyptus, which has a butterscotch taste, or meadowfoam, which tastes like vanilla marshmallows. You'll also find beeswax candles and bee-shaped soap made from glycerine, beeswax and honey. 2110 X St., (916) 451-2337, www.sacramentobeekeeping.com.

5. Worker Bee Cafe, Carpenteria (Santa Barbara County)

Soon after this cafe opened in 2001, well-meaning friends and customers started bringing in bees - on honey jars, salt-and-pepper shakers, ornaments, bowls, plates, picture frames, cookie jars, rain boots and anything else you can stick an image of an insect on. The 500 or 600 bees now lining every inch of wall, shelf and niche space in the cafe include bee dolls, plush bees, plastic bees and bee knickknacks. The owners can't throw them away because friends show up and ask, "Where's my bee?" The answer: "You'll have to search for it yourself." 973 Linden Ave., (805) 745-1828.